You don't have to be alone
by Gazlover12-Canada
Summary: Arthur feels depressed and lonely as the 4th of July approaches. When Francis comes by to visit him, the Brit realizes that even someone as annoying as France can make a difference.


He walked at a steady pace through the rain, shoes slapping against the wet pavement. The streets of London were not that crowded, which was not that rare whenever the weather was this bad. Violent storms had been occurring nonstop for the past week. It only made the man who was walking all the more depressed. Arthur Kirkland usually had mixed feelings about the rain. Sometimes he would love to just sit on his porch and watch rain drops fall down in a gentle rhythm. Sometimes it would help him fall asleep. Other times though, the rain made him bitter. Like today.

Arthur knew why he was in such a bad mood. July was coming at a steady pace. That meant that he was have to deal with his birthday. Alfred's birthday. A worldwide country celebration about the day when that git broke away from him. The pitiful defeat of the once strong British Empire.

The nightmares had already started. He would dream of that stormy night, when he and Alfred had met on the battlefield. Where Arthur had then fallen to his knees and was reduced to nothing but a pathetic teary eyed man. And Alfred had just stood there. He had stood, expressionless as he gazed down at his former mentor.

The Brit shuddered, trying to swallow down the painful memories. Those events had occurred so long ago that he should be over them. Some things in history were hard to forget, and there was also the fact that they never aged, and they could never truly forget things. Arthur's past had been painful just like all the other countries. There were some good ones, like when his beloved Queen Elizabeth I had ruled. Then there were the bad ones, like America's war of Independence. That was by far the worst.

Finally he arrived to his house, slowly opening the front door which he had left unlocked. For awhile he just stood there, letting drops of rain fall from his hair and clothes onto the floor. He shivered, but for some reason he didn't exactly feel cold. Instead he felt numb.

After lighting a fire, Arthur made himself a hot cup of earl grey tea and curled up onto his couch, knees drawn up close to his chest and his tea cup rested in both of his hands.

Time seemed to tick by slowly. Eventually Arthur felt his eyes droop. By now his tea was long gone, the hot drink settled nicely into his stomach. Rainy days always made him tired, and the tea just helped him into an even quicker slumber. He gently pulled down the worn quilt that was laying on top of the couch and covered himself with it. The softness of the blanket didn't seem to do much, but eventually his eyes closed all the way. In less than a minute all that could be heard through the house was Arthur's soft breathing.

Luckily this time he didn't dream about anything having to do with Alfred. That didn't mean they were good dreams though. In his sleep Arthur saw shadows, shadows that were lurking everywhere. They would follow him wherever he went. It was a little frightening.

When Arthur awoke, it was later in the evening. The rain had stopped pouring down, but it was now a light soft sprinkle. The green eyed country sighed, drawing the blanket a little closer around him. The fire had long since gone out, so the living room was dark. Arthur rubbed his eyes tiredly before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his cellphone. He had seven text messages...how lovely.

Two were from Alfred, both asking him to come to his party and saying that he expected an answer soon. At this Arthur sighed angrily. Year after year he would decline...why wouldn't the git get it into his head that Arthur would never, ever, EVER come?

Then he had four messages from Francis, telling him that he was worried about him. Arthur snorted; since when was that frog ever worried about sometimes besides himself or his sex mates? Lastly he had one message from Kiku asking him to tea a few weeks from now. Kiku was the only one who Arthur could at least tolerate, but after getting the messages from Alfred, Arthur was in a dull mood once again.

_'There really is only one way to solve this'_ Arthur thought to himself. _'I need a bubble bath._'

That was exactly what Arthur did. He ran a nice hot bath, adding nice scented bubble bath to the water. After his bath was filled to the brim with hot water and bubbles, Arthur finally got undressed and slowly lowered himself into the tub, letting out a contented sigh. The water lapped over his cold skin, quickly causing him to feel warm. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes...

"Angleterre, where are you?" A voice called from somewhere downstairs. A highly accented french voice...

"Shit! How the bloody hell did he get into my house?" Arthur muttered to himself, before a sudden realization dawned on him. He was in the bath undressed, and now Francis was in the house. This was NOT good!

"Angleterre?" Francis asked, his voice sounding closer. "Are you upstairs?"

Arthur debated whether or not to try and jump out of the bath and run to get his clothes, but there was no way he was going to take the chance and let the biggest pervert in the world see him. Dammit, why had he forgot to bring his clothes in with him?

"Arthur? What are you doing in there?" Francis asked. By the loudness of his voice, he was standing right outside of the bathroom!

"G-go away!" Arthur called out, sinking lower into the tub. "Your not supposed to be here!"

"You havent been answering your phone for the past week! The other countries and I are worried. I know how you can sometimes feel during Amerique's birthday and I thought you might want some company..." Francis explained, voice trailing off.

"Well you thought wrong!" Arthur spat. "I'm perfectly fine, I just needed to get away from you! Now kindly leave so I can enjoy the rest of my bath!"

Oh shit...

"Honhonhon...so your in the bath? Mind if I join you?" Francis asked, the bathroom doorknob rattling.

"S-STAY OUT!" Arthur screamed. "Just get lost Francis! My day has been bad enough, and I don't need you ruining my one nice moment of it!"

"...So you have been feeling down?" Francis finally spoke, voice sounding serious.

"So what? It's not as if you would care anyway!" Arthur said, squeezing his eyes shut and rubbing his temples. He just didn't have time to deal with Francis, not today.

"I do care Arthur. That's why I'm here." Francis said quietly.

"No you don't, none of you care! You all hate me!" Arthur yelled, before flushing after he realized what he had said.

"Nobody hates you Angleterre, especially not me." Francis said desperately.

"Sureeee" Arthur muttered sarcastically, before saying a little louder, "Everybody just sees me as a stuffy ex-empire who can't cook and only drinks tea. None of you even know how I feel! Don't think I cant hear it when you guys joke about me at World Meetings!" Arthur said, eyes prickling with hot tears.

"Arthur" Francis said, sighing and shaking his head. "We don't joke about you."

"Yes you do! Well here's some jolly good news for you...I hate all of you guys too!" The Brit shouted. "Now get out of my house!"

"Finish your bath Angleterre, I'll be waiting downstairs. I think you need someone to talk to." Francis told him. Arthur could hear the Frenchman's footsteps quietly leaving, and he breathed a sigh of annoyance. This was his home, Francis didn't have any right to be here. For Christ's sake, he was taking a nice bath!

After resting in the bath for a little while longer, Arthur finally got out, towel wrapped around his waist. He silently opened the door, looking both ways to make sure Francis wasn't upstairs before quickly running across the hallway to his room. He got changed into his pajamas, figuring that since it was late he would go to bed after kicking Francis out.

Much to Arthur's annoyance, Francis was sitting on the couch when he came back downstairs. Upon seeing Arthur emerge from the doorway, the French nation smiled. Arthur looked cute dressed in over sized pajamas, hair damp and messy from being quickly towel dried.

"You aren't welcome here. It's late and I'm going to bed." Arthur said shorty, gesturing in the direction of the door as an indication for Francis to leave.

"Come here Arthur." Francis said, ignoring the door. He patted the seat next to him. Arthur huffed under his breath and slowly shuffled over, sitting down. On any other day he would have just punched Francis in the face and threw him out forcefully but today...today he was just tired. Francis seemed to notice this as well, not cracking any perverted jokes and instead gazing at Arthur with an expression of concern.

"Talk to me Arthur" He finally broke the silence, as Arthur wasn't making any move to speak.

"Why are you here? Tell me the truth." Arthur said, not looking Francis in the eyes.

"I've already told you. I'm worried." Francis answered. "Lately, even before July, you've just been more distant. You never even stay after meetings to hang out with everyone like normally."

"So what? I'm just a bore to have around." Arthur answered. "Besides, I have my own friends. Flying Mint Bunny actually listens to me. He's even better at playing checkers than any of you are."

"I'll listen to you" Francis said, choosing to ignore commenting about Arthur's 'friends' that he talked about. "Just talk to me and I'll listen to you."

"I...there's nothing to talk about really. Even if I did complain about how lonely I am, all you would do is laugh." Arthur said. Suddenly he realized what had slipped out form his mouth and his cheeks turned bright red.

"Why haven't you told me you feel lonely? I would have visited earlier." Francis said, reaching over to run his fingers through Arthur's damp hair.

"As if I would tell you" Arthur scoffed.

"Why not?" Francis pressed. He wanted to get into Arthur's mind, to understand what he was feeling. Arthur was never one to express his thoughts or feelings.

"Just because" Arthur said, turning his head away from France. For a moment nobody spoke.

"Angleterre..." Francis finally said. "Look at me."

Francis gently cupped Arthur's chin into his hand, running a thumb over Arthur's jawbone.

"You don't have to be alone" He whispered, gently moving closer. The Brit could smell the Frenchman's cologne, and feel his warm breath on his face. Arthur stilled, gazing at Francis with slightly widened eyes. Francis then pressed his lips against Arthur's own, bringing him into sweet but gentle kiss. For a moment Arthur sat still in shock, before he closed his eyes and kissed Francis back.

They broke apart a few moments later, and Arthur was slightly disappointed. Francis was smiling at him. God he'd wanted to do that for so long! Neither spoke for a few minutes before Francis stood up from the couch, stretching.

"Well it's getting late. I suppose I should leave." He said, making his way towards the door.

"Wait!" Arthur almost yelled. Francis paused, raising one perfect eyebrow.

"Oui, mon lapin?"

"Er...you can stay the night here if you want." Arthur said quickly. "Only if you want to..."

"I would most certainly love to." Francis told him, walking back to Arthur and wrapping his arms around him.

Later that night Arthur lay awake in bed, only now he wasn't alone. He lay in France's arms, the Frenchman sleeping deeply with Arthur held against his chest. Arthur smiled...

Maybe he wasn't alone in this world.

**a/n: I would have worked on my de-aging ****story, but I wrote this while at school, after I finished a test. I didn't have my other fanfiction documents with me so I just decided to start a little one-shot to cure my boredom. Let me know what you guys think!**

**Also, I'll have chapter 14 of A Little Problem** **soon! I think it should be posted ****on Saturday. Well that's all for now. Byeeee!**


End file.
